Only On The Walters Post

These are my own thoughts from what I’ve seen and lived through. I’m sharing them to spark some thinking and honest conversation, not because I have all the answers.

Well, it’s summer. The sun’s doing its job, and the heat’s settling in over Ontario. The news is already full of warnings, like… stay indoors, drink water, check on the elderly, keep pets cool, and so on. You’d think we were walking on the sun the way folks talk. And don’t get me wrong, yes, it’s warm out, and yes, it can be dangerous for some. But here’s the thing.

Back when I was growing up on the farm, we didn’t have air conditioning or special cooling centres. We had shade trees, wide-brimmed hats, and a good sense of when to take a break. Days could hit the high 30s, maybe more, and we were out there working the fields, hauling hay, sweating under the same sun. And if you complained? Maybe you’d hear, “Yep, she’s a warm one today,” and that was about it. No panic. No headlines. Just another summer day.

So what’s changed? The weather? Maybe a bit. But I think what’s really changed is how we look at things, better said, what we focus on. The thing is, we’ve come to expect comfort at every turn. A little heat, and suddenly it’s a crisis, meanwhile, the things that should have us stirred up, things like the cost of living, the state of our healthcare, our farmers struggling to hang on, is barely make a dent in the news cycle.

We’re being steered to worry about the weather, not about where our food’s going to come from if we don’t support the hands that grow it. Not about the folks living out in the country who don’t have access to the care or services city folks take for granted. Not about how disconnected we’ve become from the very land, that once fed our bodies and our spirits.

Now, I’m not saying ignore heat warnings. Be smart, of course. Look out for each other. But maybe, just maybe, instead of wringing our hands about a week of hot weather, we ought to ask ourselves what really matters in this country of ours. And whether we’ve let comfort replace resilience.

Because if we lose that…our grit, our common sense, our ability to weather a little heat, we lose something a lot more important than a few degrees on the thermometer.

Until the next time: Keep Your Minds Open & Your Stories Alive. GW